Certain members have been so utterly desperate to claim the viewing figures are falling yet they've generally been brushed aside... either they're bang on the money, this weekend really has been this boring or people just can't be bothered?
I thought my interest was waning (and I'm unable to pinpoint one distinct reason), but it seems I'm not alone. I've not been this "meh" since the utter dross we had in the mid-2000s (I didn't mind Schumacher at the time, but the racing usually appalling, though Alonso's title challenges were refreshing).
It's quite simple, those who bang on about reducing figures are comparing what something like 2007 or 2009 numbers with 2014. The viewing numbers dropped drastically due to a largescale move towards subscription based viewing. Meaning profit per viewer went up massively and viewing numbers went down.
Bringing that up last year or early this year as proof of anything is ridiculous because these things are unconnected. Using the fact that number of people watched going down for reason A, as proof of statement B which is unconnected and happening years later is beyond laughable. That is why people get shot down.
Also last year wasn't even a fraction as bad as this year. We had better weather last year, more rain, more changeable conditions through the season. We had more reliability problems at the 'important' end of the grid last year where top 5 runners cars failed. But up and down the grid we had more action. Hamilton had some dodgy qualifying last year and so had to fight past Rosberg a lot, 9-1 this year in qualifying and that is gone.
Ferrari were 'in the pack' last year, rubbish, but in amongst other rubbish cars. That meant a big team and a big name driver who gets on screen a lot involved in a lot of overtakes. I suggested from preseason, the thing that worried me is Ferrari have moved beyond Williams, not to Mercedes, which actually reduces on track action. They are in their own little gap most races which is bad for racing. Rather than some races where Ferrari, RBR, Mclaren and maybe Williams too were all fighting somewhere 30-50 seconds back from the Mercs, but fighting, this year it's Mercs, Ferrari 15 seconds back, Williams 15 seconds back from them, RBR 15 seconds back, and Mclaren 2 laps back(or 25 if the cars just stopped).
Off the top of my head when I think Hungary last year, Hamilton had a battle with Rosberg, with Alonso, and was it Ricciardo maybe. RBR, Merc, Ferrari fighting it out, in plenty of other races Ricciardo and Alonso had great battles. This year we have a different spread of cars which unfortunately has meant the field is far more spread out, particularly the top 4 teams that get the most coverage.
We can absolutely talk about it being less interesting this year, the cars/rules haven't changed but you get good and bad years because some years the top teams are all equally good OR equally bad, doesn't matter as long as they fight each other on track. Some years it works out that everyone is in their own little space. That can happen really with any set of regulations. You can't regulate for one engine manufacturer getting worse, one team commiting hari kari and deciding to put a ludicrously rushed engine into their car and one team making an epic car.
But lets not remotely try and talk about 5-7 years of ratings decline and attempt to use them as proof the currently regulations suck or infer anything about last or this year.
Other key things I would say are Brawn retiring, if he hadn't there would likely be one other team that was significantly stronger than they are today with him in charge. Newey leaving you may blame on the regulations as they are boring, but then he's been in the sport ages and may have left anyway considering his car can't win because of Renault. Renault didn't put enough money or man power into the R&D for the engine, you get the feeling they weren't entirely committed, still unsure and that was noticeable in lack of investment in the engine. If they had committed earlier, or gotten out we'd likely have better Renault engines or more Merc/Ferrari engines out there. If Honda hadn't rushed like a bunch of idiots.
There is one final thing people just don't get which happens in all sports, knowledge. The further we go, be it american football, real football, tennis, motorsport. We get better at it, the knowledge improves, teams get more data, more R&D is done. Aero guys have vastly more knowledge than teams did 20 years ago, money is a bigger factor, across most sports the money gap between top/bottom teams has grown dramatically. Cost of technology increases to R&D costs increase, sponsorship money increases, meaning past success over key periods(in most sports) has established teams too big to fight and teams too small to ever grow to match them.
F1 gets more scientific by the year as do all sports, precision increases, difference between drivers decreases, mistakes decrease... sport gets more predictable frankly over time because of all these things.
Take any period of regulations and reinstate them today, with all the extra knowledge, with athletes in the cars and better materials, better reliability, we'd get entirely different results.
